Eros

    The platonic concept of love formulates a myth about the original human body. In Plato's Symposium, human is created with four legs and arms accompanying two heads. Zeus, the God, was so afraid of the men’s power that he found himself punishing humankind. He split them into two. This split sadly wasn’t only physically but also the soul was broken into two. From that moment, the human was left without a half. They wandered around the World looking for their other half hoping to be completed one day. Eros’s mission was to help these people to complete themselves by finding their other half. According to Freud, Eros doesn’t symbolize the libido but only the will to live which was opposed to by forces from the Ego. The idealized form of the human body, the completed human with four legs and arms, can be simply seen as a symbolic and idealized beauty, a fantasy.

    Etymologically the word fantasy derives from the Greek ‘phantasma’. In Greek ‘phantasia' is equivalent to appearance. According to Plato, ‘phantasia’ indicates mimesis in terms of appearance. In ancient Greek culture, mimesis had several meanings as imitation, copying, portraying, representing, and depicting. In the Republic, Plato mentions that the painter doesn’t reflect the true world, yet copies a false appearance of the reality, creates a fantasy. In this sense fantasy is an imaginary world. Yet when the term imagination comes into prominence its consciousness or unconsciousness is questionable.

    Are we consciously aware of how our fantasy leads us through the imaginary world? For instance, as a product of ego daydreaming might seem like an executive act yet dreaming is taking place at an unconscious level. Even daydreaming nourishes from the unconscious-mind. Thus, how is it feasible to differentiate the drive of the fantasy from the conscious and the unconscious level? Freud mentions that human has a certain primal fantasy that is related to each person’s individual development. These developments are known as the Oedipus and Electra complex which signify fantasies of seduction and castration. Even though I don’t totally agree with the Oedipus and Electra complexes, I on the same page with Freud considers sexual derives are our primary fantasies.